GaiaStar Mandalas: Ecstatic Visions of the Living Earth

Traditionally, mandalas are related to a specific belief system and are created by hand according to very specific geometries and color schemes. Artists David Todd and Bonnie Bell have taken the conventional Mandala to new frontiers, creating glorious visionary nature art with their own technique. Tradition-free, the GaiaStar Mandalas speak in a universal voice.

While investigating the details of nature surrounding their home, such as the shape of a rock or a pattern within wood, they became inspired to photograph these intricate parts of the larger whole: Earth (or Gaia). They then began further investigating their photographs by scanning them and making patterns with the digital images. The results were magical. An entire manuscript began to take shape (the sixty-four image GaiaStar Codex was published by Pomegranate Communications in 2000, as a boxed deck of cards), and a series of mandalas emerged.

These GaiaStar Mandalas are visually arresting and beautiful. Certain individual Earth elements are clearly identifiable; others are obscure. Combinations of leaves, feathers, petals, quartz, wood, fungus, crystal, rocks, stones---all present a dazzling intricacy and a magnetic power. GaiaStar Mandalas gives the reader the unique chance to examine the very essence of Earth, to feel a direct connection with the planet.